Siphoning sand tanks and behavioral q's

[mr.bigglesworth]

So I just wanted to let everyone know my fish have been very happy lately )). But the question I was wondering was what does it mean if your Jack Dempsey and parret fish jump out of the water and eat food out of your hands CONSTANTLY. I've seen parrets do it through a YouTube video, but Jack dempsies? And my fish do it so much I can hardly even get food into the tank without my fish grabbing it out of my hands midair. Well I can but its difficult. My Jack dempseys such a pig when he eats massivores he gets to the point where food is coming out of mouth because he can't keep it in. I swear 12 hours later he's still trying to jam the same food down his throat. It looks like there's enough food in his mouth to feed a family of 5!! He's only 4 inches and him and the 5 inch parret go through a 10$ bag of massivores in just weeks! Oh and I think my synodontis erupterus is starting to come out of the water a bit and eat pellets! A synodontis! She swims at the top more than my bala shark. Who is there 90%. Oh and I feed during the day but my synodontis is more daytime than nightime now. My fish have lots of hiding spots but nobody hides at all. There's 2 caves in the corner that haven't been touched in months. Some info on Jack Dempsey and synodontis erupterus behavior would be helpful. HOW DO YOU CLEAN A TANK WITH SAND SUBSTRATE???! PLEASE RESPOND ASAP.

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[bomber]

How do you clean a tank with sand substrate?????

CLean it like a normal tank. All the crap should sit on top of the sand making it easier to siphon the poo.
If you suck up sand, learn to keep the siphon wand further away from the sand.

Or you can use a wave maker to push all the poo to the intake of your filters.

 

[Cybercyde]

Sounds like you've got one of those good problems. lol

Happy fish, tons of food, nobody fighting. When they act weird once or twice, I pay more attention. If they're healthy, showing good color, and doing it all the time... Go with it.

I've got convicts that will for lack of a better word... "dolphin" about a third of their body out of the water at feeding time to get to the food first. They can actually hold themselves out of the water for a few seconds.

My jd's will occasionally snatch an earthworm from the top by hand, but that's about it.

My pleco floats upside down to eat pellets and graze on the broken off corkscrew val leaves on the surface.

I've got Tahitian Moon, and aside from keeping the siphon a bit further out or angling it away from the surface of the sand, I'll pinch/kink the hose slightly to slow down flow when too much sand is being picked up to let it settle back out.

 

[Totalimmortal]

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/videos/cleaning_sand.php

Now I don't stir up my sand but the technique in the video is spot on.

 

[Cybercyde]

Now I don't stir up my sand but the technique in the video is spot on.

I use the siphon tube instead of my hand for stirring, just have to nearly stop flow, and the sand settles right back out of the tube. It's actually how I re-bury the runners on my plants.